Kitty Dunn

Dark Side of the Moon: 10 fun facts

by Kitty Dunn,posted Mar 11 2013 10:45AM

Pink Floyd's album Dark Side of the Moon was released 40 years ago this month. If you're over 45, chances are you've owned at least one copy of this album in your life, perhaps wearing out a copy or two on vinyl before upgrading to CD.

With that in mind, I present

10 Fun Facts about Dark Side of the Moon

1. Pink Floyd opened their Dark Side of the Moon tour at the Dane County Coliseum on March 4, 1973. Tickets cost $4.00 in advance. (Click here to see the setlist).

2. The sound effects in "Money" were created with coins clinking in a bowl, tearing paper, a ringing cash register, and the clicking of an adding machine.

3. The laughter on "Brain Damage" and "Speak To Me" came from Pink Floyd's road manager, Peter Watts, the father of actress Naomi Watts.

4. While the album was being recorded, Paul McCartney was in another studio at Abbey Road, recording "Red Rose Speedway," which featured the song "My Love."

5. The spectrum on the cover is missing the color indigo.

6. Some of the profits from the record were used to produce the movie Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

7. Since another band already had an album called Dark Side of the Moon, the album was almost called Eclipse.

8. While the album was #1 for only one week, it remained on the charts for a whopping 741 weeks, and was certified 11X platinum.

9. The album came in at #43 on Rolling Stone's list of the Greatest Albums of All Time.

10. The album won one Grammy, for best engineered album. The engineer was Alan Parsons (the same guy from the Alan Parsons Project).

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